Scientists don’t spend free time to think about the changes that made possible the birth of a new way to make research. For example, how we moved from a world driven by religious and philosophical beliefs to a world demanding explanations and mechanisms? Ernst Haeckel was one of the scientists who made that change possible[…]

The Node’s staff has kindly asked me to write a little “behind the scenes” on our zebrafish paper released today in Development, “Ubiquitous transgene expression and Cre-based recombination driven by the ubiquitin promoter in zebrafish” (http://dev.biologists.org/content/138/1/169). The spark to pursue the project were the first conversations I had in spring 2008 with senior postdocs in[…]

The first issue of 2011 is out now…here are the highlights: Geminin control of lineage commitment The transition between pluripotency and multi-lineage commitment during early embryogenesis must be closely regulated to ensure correct spatial and temporal patterning of the embryo. But what regulates this crucial transition? According to Kristen Kroll and co-workers, part of the[…]

“I also here salute the echinoderms as a noble group especially designed to puzzle the zoologist.” Libbie Hyman, 1955 Echinoderms are fascinating creatures. They have extensive regenerative capabilities, a mutable connective tissue that dynamically (and deliberately) changes its stiffness, and a complex system of hydraulic canals involved in the circulation of internal fluids and locomotion.[…]

Like more than 500 million people in the world, the Node is now on Facebook . Our foray into Facebook was slightly overshadowed by the British royal family doing exactly the same thing a few weeks earlier, but we can guarantee you that our page will contain far more developmental biology. We’re using our Facebook[…]

The RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology has released the images for a series of postcards under a creative commons license. The images picture a wide range of both common and uncommon model organisms, all in a Japanese paper art style.

Over the past months, we’ve seen a few posts on the Node from people who spent a few months working in labs abroad. All of them were funded by a Development travelling fellowship. The next deadline for these fellowships is coming up on December 31st, and Development would like to encourage you to apply. To[…]

Hello, I am Terry Jackson, a 6th year PhD student in Genetics and Genomics at Duke University which is located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. I am working on my degree in the lab of Dr. Philip Benfey whose research focuses on identifying transcription factors in the root of Arabidopsis thaliana. I am pleased to[…]

(This interview by Kathryn Senior originally appeared in Development on November 23, 2010) Patrick Tam’s research is focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of body patterning during mouse development. He agreed to be interviewed by Development to talk about his interest in mouse development, new concepts in gastrulation, X-linked diseases and his dream of[…]

Pak1-ing a punch in lumen formation The generation and maintenance of correct lumen size and shape is essential for the function of tubular organs. Now, Monn Monn Myat and co-workers report that p21-activated kinase (Pak1) plays a novel role during lumen formation in Drosophila embryonic salivary glands (see p. 4177). The researchers show that Pak1[…]

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